Comments on: Friday Thoughts (1)

By: Gert

Gert — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:24:29 +0000

Perhaps if some of the Israeli top brass stand trial for war crimes they can invoke insanity too? Now there’s a plea I might have to seriously consider, actually…

Thanks for posting this.

By: Avram

Avram — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 16:54:13 +0000

how do you steal a mine?

interesting Alex, maybe we should start a business … must be worth millions if you’re good at it and live in the North.

By: Alex Stein

Alex Stein — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 08:37:06 +0000

I should point out that it seems the guys in the mine-field were looking to steal a mine; generally stumbling into a mine-field in Israel isn’t something done accidentally.

By: Gabriel

Gabriel — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:03:18 +0000

It is a fundamental and very sad problem in Israel, but as grania points out, it’s hardly an Israel-only problem. If you are a black man in the US, you will go to jail for longer for the same crimes a white man commits (if he goes to jail at all). If you are a man, you will serve a longer sentence than a woman serves. The truth is that the law is not equal anywhere really. None of this for a second condones the two-tier law (at least) that exists in Israel. (I would also add the Haredi community is, in a sense almost free from the laws of Israel, they almost always deal with matters on their own). Along with 60+ years of war inevitably comes dehumanization (this started well 1967) and there is a sense from all parties of the “us” versus “them” mentality which is the cause of these inequalities. Until some sort of change in the political landscape, I don’t see much changing.

By: grania

grania — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:01:01 +0000

This all boils down to ‘institutional racism’ – which is alive and well to this day even here in the San Francisco Bay Area.

By: Peter D

Peter D — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:49:40 +0000

I am reading a letter to the NY REview of Books by Chomsky from 1984 (!) and it is amazing because how relevant a lot of what was being said more than 24 years ago is now. This excerpt caught my eye as very apropos to this post: there is a regular pattern of imposed segregation, denial of right of free expression, extraordinary punishments (e.g., an inhabitant of Kafr Kassem was sentenced to a year in prison "for pretending to be a Jew in order to marry a [Jewish] woman" after being refused permission to convert, the same sentence that was meted out to an IDF officer who murdered 43 Arabs in Kafr Kassem in one hour in another 1956 massacre), and much else—as we would expect in a State that is not the State of its citizens, by law. All of this too has been suppressed for many years in the US. Read it all, by all means...

By: Peter D

Peter D — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:31:13 +0000

A really good post, with so much to ponder with so few words!
Regarding the first story, it may be important to stress, if I understood you correctly, that it is not about questioning Soufir’s verdict, but rather questioning the way the Israel justice system treats the Arabs.

By: Grania

Grania — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:58:55 +0000

Sorry will he be locked away in an institution for life – or is there a specific time period? Will the family of the taxi driver be eligible for some sort of compensation, would they be able to sue Mr. Soufir in civil court? I apologize in advance for my ignorance of Israeli law.